Despite abundant evidence of the dangers, people all over the world are still choosing to take their chances with the virus. They’re a danger to themselves, their kids, and to the rest of us.

(Originally published Oct. 21 in “What in the World“) Surprise, surprise: Americans sent their kids back to school this fall and they’re coming home with Covid. People everywhere continue to reject simple science. Russians aren’t getting vaccinated and are dying of Covid in record numbers. Clever vaccine skeptics in Ukraine got fake vaccine certificates to evade restrictions meant to protect them. Now, they’re dropping dead of Covid.

It might be tempting to dismiss these tragedies as the unfortunate fate of the ignorant. But every new infection is an opportunity for the virus to mutate into something that can more easily hop from person to person and evade immunity. This may explain the strangely persistent surge in infections in the United Kingdom, where two-thirds of the population has been fully vaccinated. Research has revealed that 70% of the new infections are by a new sub-variant of the Delta strain.

This is very bad news for Americans, only 56% of whom are fully vaccinated. Fortunately, more and more employers are forcing holdouts to get the jab. And vaccine makers are seeking regulatory approval to deliver vaccines to the last group still waiting for them—American kids under the age of 12.